The Journey To Ascending
by Blood Never Lies
Summary: My own take on the famed and much loved chapter in DBZ history - how Vegeta attained the level of Super Saiyan... and to a lesser but no less important extent how Vegeta got Bulma's affections and came to reciprocate them even if he didn't share them initially! V/B in later chapters, in character. Feedback welcomed!
1. Chapter 1

**First DBZ fic in a while. I'll say it once now so no one whinges later "I do not own Dragon Ball Z."  
**

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The achievement of becoming a Super Saiyan - it was all he strove for; there was nothing else, no other distraction, no greater drive but that of pride and no further desire than that of a rightful supremacy over the blasted clown that had shamed him before his ancestry and before the memory of his upbringing.  
How it stung! How it _hurt_… It was almost a living thing inside of him! Something deep within him that was squirming and screaming for release and absolution; his shame that he had failed to beat the clown during their battle on Earth, the disappointment and jealousy that he had failed to be the one to defeat Freeza, and the _anger_ that where a miserable low class warrior had accomplished the stuff of legend and _he could not!_  
Intolerable! Unbearable! _Unforgiveable_!  
He would have satisfaction! He would have certainty!  
His emotions boiling within him, reflected in his coal black eyes that smouldered like a stoked furnace, he clenched his teeth and crawled over to the console at the centre of the room, at 300 times normal gravity every effort was difficult in the strictest sense of the word, and now he was going to make it herculean just to prove he could do it.  
The risk to his body was high, and the likelihood of adding injury to a body already tired and strained made this attempt very foolish.  
He paused for a second and paid for it dearly – the weight slammed onto tired muscles and he gasped at the toll his back and arms took before he continued ahead out of stubborn determination.

The path to legendary status was no less demanding than this personal regime he had set for himself…! Perhaps by pressing further… he would be able to shorten the time between now… and the moment of triumph!  
Nothing risked meant nothing gained…! It was time for the plunge!  
He'd reached his destination, accomplishment brought new energy to his fatigued muscles and with a scowl of effort plastered on his face he lifted a hand trembling under the effort to find the setting he needed on a console that was a mere foot above his head, he fingered the pad delicately and finding the raised knob jutting out of the console and clenching his teeth in preparation he twisted the dial to a setting higher than his best efforts had managed.  
Letting out a cry of anguish he regretted the choice the second he made it, the army on his back had just put on full heavy armour and called reinforcements! With a cry he slammed into the floor and moaned from the painful pressure…  
"Oohh!" he groaned, eyes shut and teeth clenched in an attempt to supress the pain now, eh was dimly away that the lighting around had gone red, screens were flashing and behind the roaring of blood in his ears he could vaguely make out some kind of noise that sounded the sirens…  
"Rrrghh!" he shoved himself sideways using all his combined mass and body strength to do so, he succeeded in rolling onto his back, only to realise how stupid it was to do so as all the pressure went onto his arms, legs and ribcage.  
Muscles screamed in agony from the pressure, Vegeta would have screamed too only it seemed he was out of air! Opening his mouth and trying to breathe he was scared to realise that despite his efforts he couldn't inflate his lungs!  
…Air!  
Tears rolled from his streaming eyes, his mouth hung open in a silent scream and all the while the alarms flared with red light.  
His world started to go black, he was scared to see red at the edges of his vision… blood in his vision… capillaries must be breaking behind his eyeballs…  
His head rolled to one side and he saw the doorway lights come on and the keypad next to it going green, someone must be entering the GR room.  
Vegeta's world went black as his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

Something hurt… well actually a _lot_ of him hurt.  
It hurt... badly.  
He moaned, or rather he _thought_ he moaned. He couldn't hear. He also couldn't see. But he could feel, and that was good. Feeling things meant he was alive.  
He knew the difference, Freeza had killed him once. He knew what death felt like.  
It had felt a lot like what had happened before in the GR room, except the last time it had been considerably swifter in coming and had been concentrated on only one part of his body by an energy blast shot from Freeza's hand.  
Still, the lesson had been learned at the time. There were some things he could not do. Beating Freeza had been one of them.  
But apparently he had not learned the more important lesson at the time. Limits… he had limits to what he could take as well as what he could do.  
Well, this lesson was going to be well learned. Something burned inside his chest and he might had cried out in pain…  
This lesson was going to be well learned _if he_ _lived through it_ he corrected himself hastily.  
Regulate your breathing Vegeta, he told himself, feel your chest move as you breathe, use the pain don't fight it!  
He took a deep breath in, ignoring the protest of his chest, and the exhaled. He repeated this again and again until something started to make sense…  
"…tha… wa… … cl..se…" a voice was saying from a long way away.  
"..still seriously wou-…! …on't know if… recover!" another said. Hn, male. Men should not sound so panicked. Panic did nothing for anyone.  
"He will." Ah! _That_ was familiar. Who was that again…?  
He inhaled gently through his nose, perfume… perfume and shampoo.  
That fragrance… fruit, soap and something chemical. Huh, it was the _woman _then.  
"He's made of tough stuff, _stupid man_." He was pretty sure that last part was said under her breath by the higher octave and the hiss it sounded like. "He'll make it. At least he's breathing on his own now."  
He stopped listening at that point and focussed on the ambient noise, the bleep of machines, the hiss of what sounded like a respiratory device, and some kind of low grunting noise… oh god, was that _him?_  
He stopped himself breathing for a second the let out one long breath… yep, it was him.  
Bad move stopping the breathing though, he could feel hands on his skin. Needles pricking his arms. Heh, at least he wasn't scared of needles unlike that big baby Kakarot. Honestly, the man would fight bare knuckle against enemies that most would have run screaming from without a second thought, but would panic at the sight of a measly little shot.  
Pathetic really.  
Something was being injected into him, it felt cold. Numbness spreading up his arms like ice… he tried to fight it, but he was simply too tired… yes, a little sleep would help rejuvenate him… the he could fight…

He opened his eyes again. Light burned for a moment but then cleared into painful but clear vision.  
A room. He was in a small room. One of the rooms in the _woman's _house.  
Hngh.  
Well, it could be worse. At least they hadn't taken him to one of those so called hospitals here on Earth, honestly he wasn't sure he was up to a stranger telling him how to feel.  
At least with the woman…  
He blinked. Where was he going with that sentence? He didn't know. But more importantly! Was he healed yet? Could training recommence?  
He tried lifting an arm, found it to be difficult but doable... for a few seconds anyway. He let it flop onto his chest where his fingers brushed over bandages, rather a lot of them too.  
Oh. Was he not healed yet?  
A noise caught his attention, a door opened and the woman walked in. She had something in her hands, some sort of food in a bowl.  
Normally he would have sneered at the paltry amount she was holding, but with awareness had come a certain feeling of _emptiness_ in his stomach.  
Something was better than nothing.  
She sat down next to him and seemed to notice only then that he was aware of her.  
Her face twisted into one of aggravation and anger "Oh _now_ you're awake! About time mister!" she snapped irritably.  
He opened his mouth to say something scathing but all he managed was a hoarse grunt of protest.  
She elected to ignore him and motioned to the steaming bowl beside her "Well I brought you something to eat before bedtime. Three days you've been out cold!" She said it as though she couldn't quite believe it had _only_ been that long. She looked out of the window into the night sky before she turned her attention back to him and the soup "One thing I learned about Saiyans a long time ago is there's little you won't do for food. But in your case it seems there's little you won't do to scare the crap out of me too! Open up." she commanded.  
He frowned and twisted his lips into a thin line of annoyance, but as his stomach complained he reluctantly complied.  
As she spooned soup into his mouth she babbled on about the operation he'd been involved with during the last point of his recollection. All he could think of to say was, what the hell was she going on about?  
He got his answer quickly enough as she put the soup bowl down heavily on the side and pointed an accusing finger at him.  
"Four broken ribs mister! Four! You collapsed your lungs, traumatised most of the muscles in your arms, legs and chest, not to mention the blood loss you got from internal injuries! I told you to cut back on that training or at least give yourself time to recover between work outs – and then I discover you're going even beyond what the _machine_ predicts you can handle! Idiot! You're lucky you're still _breathing_, let alone mobile!"  
"What are you talking about! I… can barely… move!" he protested as he moved his hand away from his chest with difficulty to prove his point.  
She snorted contemptuously "Yeah well, that's only for the moment, little comfort that does me! The doctors say you'll make a full recovery, not that they know how that's even possible given the state you showed up in. Lucky for you that you Saiyans have an overdeveloped recovery system to go with your over demanding expectations of yourselves!"  
He managed a weak smile "Stronger after every time we fight…"  
"…and more powerful after a near death experience? Are you trying to get yourself killed?" She demanded of him.  
They glared at each other for a moment but then her face melted into one of concern and something else he couldn't place "Vegeta, if there's any truth to the statement 'what you get out of something is worth all the effort you put into it' then you deserve to be a super saiyan at least three times over at the rate you've trained yourself now." She sounded sympathetic and she sounded worried too.  
Her words hurt to hear because he couldn't help but agree with them despite that he had not been able to reach the goal.  
"…I know…!" he hissed angrily, he clenched a fist into a tight ball at his side "It's not fair!" something inside of him was hurting again and he twisted his face in discomfort at the feeling.

He felt something run down the side of his face… was he crying? No! Kami no! Please not in front of the woman! Not even alone would he let himself cry, because crying was pointless – it solved nothing and it only showed how weak you were…!  
He managed a hiss of anger before something hitched in his breath and to his shame he realised he really _was_ going to cry, and not even in a slightly dignified manner!  
What hurt the most was that he wouldn't even be able to reach a hand up to wipe the tears away or hide his face from her because he couldn't move a damn muscle from overtraining himself almost to death!  
He closed his eyes miserably and tried to turn his head away to retain some kind of dignity.  
"Vegeta, are you okay?" she asked him, knowing full well he was not but obviously concerned.  
"_Leave me alone…!_" he was hurt. Angry. Bitter._  
_He heard her sigh and felt her retreating from his side "Oh Vegeta… what am I going to do with you?" she asked him sadly.  
"_Just get out!_" He snarled at her "...just leave me alone…" he half whispered to himself in a small voice as he began to sob silently, he couldn't quite believe how upset he was. He sounded like a stranger to his own ears, he hadn't heard himself cry in…  
Well, he sounded pitiful. Really, were it not for the need to release all the emotions inside of him right now he'd normally have felt pretty pissed off with himself by this point.  
Maybe she felt how badly he needed this too as after a moment she'd opened the door to leave him, she came rushing back over and rubbed him gently on the back.  
She turned him back over and before he could protest at her seeing him in such a state she placed a finger to his lip and hugged him so she couldn't see him let it all out of himself.  
When she was quite sure he was over the worst of it she gathered up the soup from the side, then after a slight hesitation she risked bending over and giving him a final kiss on the forehead.  
He didn't know whether to hate her for the act of kindness she'd just shown him or hate himself for letting her see how much the vanity of his efforts really made him feel sometimes.  
"You'll get there Vegeta. If anyone can find the way, you'll get there." She comforted him solemnly.

He said nothing as she turned off the lights and left him alone to sleep and recover himself, but she'd insisted on keeping the door open so he wouldn't feel completely alone.  
Not that he'd wanted her to, or needed it…  
Heavy with fatigue and feeling foolish with himself he sniffed hard and cleared his throat, reminding himself that there was nothing he could have done to prevent that hug she'd given him.  
That would teach him not to act so foolishly in front of company, comfort was for weaklings.  
Still, he couldn't bring himself to say it to her face, but he felt he owed her something for saying that last part for him.  
"…Thank you…" he whispered into the darkness. 

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**This is a multi chapter, there is obviously more to follow. please feel free to leave a review if you like this or if you have some suggestions for me.  
If you don't like this fic then don't comment on it. It's that simple.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Next chapter up. Thank you to all who've reviewed so far. As I said before feedback is appreciated.**

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It took time but he recovered from his mishap. It was time he could not afford to waste but after this recent event and the one prior involving the machine exploding he now felt that to have any more mistakes like these would be the sign of an idiot unwilling to face reality.  
…and though he was many things; stubborn, tough, and proud being but a few he could mention, there was always the matter of comporting oneself with dignity.  
It would be unseemly to be seen making these mistakes more than once, it would seem to others he was foolish.  
Not that he cared how others felt! What he meant was it would be insulting to _himself_ to allow these slip ups to happen more than once.  
Nodding firmly, and resolved to now be more careful with his workouts he made his way down the corridors at a slow walk. His ribs ached and so he had resigned himself to going without the GR room's primary function until he was completely recovered and instead he had focussed on harnessing control of his Ki instead.  
He sat cross legged in the spacious grounds outside the house he temporarily called his refuge. The woman insisted it was his_ home_ but he had swiftly corrected her that his home was dead and he would not be staying here any longer than he needed to.  
He was here to make use of their facilities that was all! This was a business arrangement; he would not kill or hurt them and in return they would shelter and feed him whilst providing him full use of their training facilities as they had done Kakarot.  
He recalled the woman's face as he'd told her this, the part about him staying no longer than he had too had especially caused a reaction. She'd seemed sad to hear him say that.

He shook his head, what was the matter with him? Had these considerations bothered him before now? No! Never!  
He knitted his eyebrows and closed his eyes as he focussed on the real reason he was out here; mastery of the Ki. Concentrate Vegeta!  
The power surged within him; life, strength, determination and will. These were the essence of power that one could find in ones self.  
He relied only on himself; he needed no others.  
_Except those who provide you with facilities and food?_ His subconscious cheeked.  
He paused and snapped out of his concentration with a start of realisation – Gods! Kami, his insubordinate thoughts had a point there!  
He looked around at the peaceful house and at all the facilities at his disposal and all the food he was given… he _was _rather spoiled he had to confess…  
Right! That settled it! When he left he would have to seek out some sanctuary, some place of solitude and danger to toughen himself up again! If he stayed here too long he would go soft with the luxury of support and care that was being provided to him without cost!  
His ribs ached and he grunted and rubbed them… of course, there was the fact that he still had to recover… he would still be here a while.  
He huffed out a sigh and closed his eyes again; power, strength, honour, he reminded himself… the energy surged within his gut, warming him like a blanket from within. He inhaled and exhaled deeply, pushing down on the levels and them raising it up.  
It was like water from a burst pipe; compressed and controlled it brought a stillness and calm that made everything seem normal, released in one form or another brought different benefits; through the body it gave one a quickness of the limbs and heightened senses, with a series of punches and kicks Vegeta sampled his strength against imagined foes.  
Power released from the palms allowed the use of great energy in a destructive blast, he aimed at a tree and felled it. Picking it up and throwing it into the sky he released a second blast that disintegrated the trunk and left only the branches to fall from the heights above him. Allowing only a single shot for each one he released them in precise short bursts which each found their target and reduced it to ash and leaves.

Standing on the lawn, leaves swirling and falling around him like petals from a blossom tree he went through the next basic form of Ki control; flight.  
Energy pushed down from the feet then maintained in a steady flow allowed controlled flight… he pushed and soared through the air, almost weightless in the earth's low gravity.  
A few gentle aerodynamic flights and some careful controlled freefalling assured him that indeed he had not lost his touch at flying any more that he had at fighting.  
He had sampled all these things and found his control perfect; good. This was sufficient.  
Injury had not damaged his senses then.  
Now for the final test; a controlled release of energy from his body.  
This one was the most dramatic form of transferring energy either by wasting it upon the landscape around in a destructive blast or else transporting the free energy into another vessel or person by careful management of the flow.

He looked around at the street and spied the lights. Hm, it wasn't dark but perhaps they would serve as markers anyhow. His vision _was_ better than humans...  
A new idea came to mind, fairly harmless and not too disruptive.  
He stayed low in the sky and brought himself to rest on the gently curved rooftop of the Capsule Corp building. Yes this would provide a good vantage point for him to see his handiwork and check his progress.  
Right then, time to begin! Breathe, focus…  
He closed his eyes and pushed out with his energy, skin heated and sweat dissolved into steam that rose from his skin like heat from the surface of hot tarmac.  
Energy glowed from off him, making him shine like a light himself. Off the nearby metal surfaces sparks were flashing from charge he was building in the atmosphere.  
Raising it higher he clenched his teeth together as his body sought to release the energy he was building, if he desired he could have unleashed it as it had long ago in that first battle with Kakarot and destroyed the landscape around him, but this was about _controlled release_ - he kept it trapped inside him, raising the level steadily higher within himself.

The energy was escaping him despite his best efforts now; his own vessel was insufficient to keep it completely contained and it shone from beneath his skin in a dazzling light, energy escaped in a kinetic release that whipped wind around him in a strong breeze, sparks charged and crackled in the air around him as ions discharged their own stored energy against his gathering storm.  
In the air above him the clouds gathered and the sky darkened. Yes, this was what he'd desired!  
Letting the clouds build until the sun was blocked out he bared his teeth in a savage grin of satisfaction, yes! This was a true indication of how his energy had grown since his last fight here – gathering a storm was a magnificent achievement and previously he'd only managed this when he'd been pushing himself to the height of his power but now it felt like child's play!  
So the injury _had_ been worth something after all! His power _had_ increased!

As lightning boomed above him and rain began to hammer down he snapped out of his congratulatory reverie and looked out at the city; right then. Now for the release and the test of his control over his energy!  
He unleashed it all in a single powerful pulse that for a moment caused a bubble that bounced the rain back; it was nothing deadly, but the animals and birds would be fleeing the area for miles around him thanks to the unusual weather and activity… but the sight he'd now created was a spectacular one to see!  
In front of him a city suddenly eclipsed by storm clouds had bloomed into a light show; every single bulb was glowing brightly from streetlights to bedside table lamps within houses.  
For a few moments a whole city shone in the darkness, Vegeta looked at it but his mood quickly soured as he was reminded of the golden aura of a super saiyan.  
Both Kakarot and that unusual visitor from the future had accomplished the feat that he could not.

As he scowled at the city and mulled over his shortcomings, beneath him a hover car pulled up and the woman burst out of it covering her head from the rain storm with papers as she began shouting up at him.  
"Vegeta what the hell! I thought I said to take it easy with your training!" she yelled over the rumble of thunder and lightning.  
He looked down at her and his scowl turned to one of puzzlement… what was _his_ problem? What was her problem!  
He was trying to train and she was whinging at him for being considerate to his injured body – one moment she said take it easy, the next she was yelling at him for doing so!  
Blasted wench should be grateful!  
"I _am_ taking it easy woman! Be thankful for once in your life!" he shouted back angrily as yet another bolt flashed through the darkness he'd created with the cloud cover.  
"Yeah well there's more than you who live here bud! You've brought the city to a standstill with that little lightshow! Now get inside, you'll catch a chill!" she scolded him.  
"Ugh, _women_… never happy!" Vegeta grumbled as he walked over to one of the higher windows and pushed it open to get inside the house.

-

She handed him a drying cloth as he walked through the corridors to find where she'd gone, rain dripped off his body and stained the carpets.  
"Hn." He grunted by way of thanks as he towelled his hair and face before placing it straight back into her hands for her to dispose of.  
"Ugh! Ex-_cuse_ me mister! There's a thing called a radiator or a wash bin for this! I am not your servant!" she snapped at him before throwing it back at him.  
He watched it hit his chest and fall to the floor before he deliberately turned and walked after from it and her.  
"Hey!" she yelled from behind him. He rolled his eyes and turned just in time to receive the towel hitting him squarely in the face.  
He snatched it off his face, anger coursed through his veins "Why you-!" he snarled and went to throw it back but she pointed one of her perfectly manicured nails at him in warning.  
"I dare you mister! Throw that at me and your precious GR room is history!"  
This gave him pause as he considered her words… without that room he was stuck without a sufficient way to train as Kakarot had done before he had ascended to a Super Saiyan.  
He bit back the retort on his lips and lowered the towel slowly.  
"Wash bin?" he asked in a quiet and warning tone she was not to push her luck any further with him.  
She smirked, a small victorious smile that made his jaw clench "Down the hall in the wash room. Second door on the left."

As he headed towards the instructed room he felt a certain part of him admired the woman for her brazen nature with him. Any of the others would have been cowed by the thought of incurring his wrath, but she always spoke her mind to him and refused to back down.  
Some day he was going to hurt her for it, but right now she had… uses that gave her a special licence.  
He needed her. That was the only reason he tolerated her.

-

Another day on Earth. But this one an important development because it was the first time he had been allowed to use the GR room since his last injury. The woman had said so.  
An agreement had been made between him and the woman the day before, breakfast first and then she would come with him to undo her modifications to the GR room's gravity levels before his regime restarted.  
Not a day too soon! Inactivity had been driving him mad!  
'Breakfast' was a strange thing in this household. Up till now he'd been taking his meals during breaks between his workouts, morning noon and night. But after both of these series of injuries he'd received he had been forced to eat with the woman and her family for a while so they could better monitor his health.  
Now it seemed it was to become a custom, but he would allow it only so they would not bother him during training.  
Meal times were the only allowance he would make for these social niceties, and given that meal times were solely about the consumption of food he didn't waste much time talking.  
He resolved to eat then get straight back to the GR room to train.  
However, despite his unwillingness to participate he did not completely ignore the others at the dinner table.  
They were a strange lot these 'Briefs'.

The father was always too busy babbling to eat very much, it was always about something he was presently building for his company and when it wasn't about that it was always something about perfecting the cappuccino maker of which by now he had been perpetually tinkering and perfecting in his spare time for the better part of a year!  
But always each time it seemed he was 'getting somewhere' according to his own assessment to his wife and child.  
He had no clue what the purpose of these modifications were given that the cappuccino maker seemed to brew perfectly good coffee without them, but he gathered that this project must be something of a personal goal for Dr Briefs to accomplish so he did not mock it.  
After all, the man was striving to achieve what he wanted, and even for a silly goal like perfecting a cappuccino maker to blend the perfect cappuccino it was still fundamentally the same journey he was on in becoming the perfect warrior; each session was about improvement and measured in results.  
They were not so different, he decided, in that they were both men each on a mission to achieve perfection.  
As for the mother, well he did not know what to make of her.

She seemed a silly creature, with a head full of clouds and an over cheery disposition. He also noted that the woman never seemed to open her eyes around people for she closed them when she gave them that ridiculous smile of hers… perhaps her lack of manners was made up for with her personality?  
Maybe it was something else.  
He did not really care for he spared no real thought for her except occasionally wondering how it was that a woman of her age who had no further occupation than a housewife managed to look so young where time had taken its toll on her husband, still, the woman _could_ cook.  
He admired that much about her abilities, the woman's mother had a way of getting plates of food ready in double quick time for him to eat and his progress was cheered on by her at every stage whether it be 'how hard he'd been training lately' or 'how very strong' he was looking.  
She was an enigma, and he didn't understand her even slightly. She was not a woman he would have put up with, but she was tolerable most of the time unlike her daughter!

As for the 'woman'… she baffled him.  
It was as though there was as much to be resented as there was to be admired. She was foolish in terms of how she behaved, but brilliant in terms of her ability to create.  
She would aggravate him, scold him, lecture him and grind on his nerves, but she knew when to back off and she had been the one to offer him refuge here in the first place. She _tried_.  
He had not thanked her for this, but nor had he ignore it.  
Never did she try to kick him out as her 'boyfriend' had asked her to do so once or twice before now, she'd even kicked up a scene and shouted back at the weakling that if he wanted it so badly then he could tell him himself and stop telling her to do it.  
The dolt had paled at the suggestion and Vegeta, present to hear, had walked past him without even slowing and been sure to knock him aside slightly to invite trouble if he wanted to try it.  
He hadn't and in doing so he had revealed another part of the woman that frustrated him.  
What was her infatuation with that idiot loser who hadn't even had it in him to beat a saibaman?

The time she spent recovering her deteriorating relationship with that man often cost him precious hours that might be spent in improvement upon his equipment!  
How could a woman admire such a man who had neither the brains to call himself her equal nor the brawn to protect her from people like him…?  
Well, actually that last part wasn't true. He wouldn't hurt her without provocation.

Since their last proper encounter at his bedside when she had… comforted him in a moment of weakness a week ago, he had noted a change in her demeanour towards him. She seemed to have lost some fear of him.  
He didn't know if this was good or bad. After all, she was an asset to him at present, he supposed he was just putting up with it because willing cooperation beat forced cooperation any day. He could not fix the GR machine if she chose to sabotage it, and her father may have constructed the thing but he was seldom around to make use of in its repairs as he was too busy elsewhere.  
Vegeta neither knew nor cared to ask where he might be found, it would seem as though he wanted their company and he didn't!  
So he complied with the woman and put up with her instructions.  
He finished his last forkful of food… 'pancakes' they called them here. Well, either way they were delicious with that syrup they had put on them!  
He grunted to get the attention of all seated as he rose from the table.  
"I'm going to train" He announced "call me when the evening meal is prepared. Woman, come."  
The girl sat at the table, still eating her breakfast and sipping coffee.  
He scowled "Did you not hear me?" he demanded "I _said_ I'm going to train!"

"Oh my!" The mother exclaimed, shocked at his rough tone.  
"I have a name bud, and it's not 'woman'. It's Bulma." The woman said.  
"Woman!" he snapped.  
"Can't hear you." She replied.  
He heaved a sigh and lowered himself down to her level, noting how both her mother and father were talking quietly and pretending not to be bothered by the standoff at the breakfast table.  
"Woman," he growled quietly as he took hold of her wrist to stop her drinking coffee "You're making a fool out of me! We had an agreement!" he hissed fiercely.  
"Which was what exactly?" she questioned as she met his gaze levelly with one of her own.  
"You said we would have breakfast then you would fix the machine so I can start training!" he reminded her angrily, starting to get really annoyed at her now.  
"Have I finished breakfast?" she asked.  
"I don't know, _have_ you? You eat so little as it is!"

She shook her wrist free "No." she said.  
"What was that?" he demanded.  
"I said _no_ Vegeta, I have not finished breakfast so you will wait. Feel free to wait outside the GR room if you like, but stop behaving like a spoiled child at the dinner table. My coffee's getting cold."  
Aghast at her insinuation he stared at her for a long moment and his hand trembled with the need to act… he wanted to hit something!  
But not her, he must not! She would _never_ modify the GR room if he did that and right now it could be set to no higher than 5x Earth's gravity.  
With a snarl of anger he spun on a heel and stormed out of the room, behind him he heard voices talking worriedly.  
"Is he normally this way dear?" her mother asked the woman, sounding a little alarmed.  
What she said next shocked him.  
"No mom, he's just a bit frustrated because he had to go without training for so long. I get it, he's got goals but that doesn't mean I have to do what he wants. It's not like we're dating after all."

The conversation turned to that weakling Yamcha and an upcoming date to help revive their dying relationship. Despite several blunders on his account lately she was _still_ caving in to his requests that they try to 'save their relationship'.  
Perhaps there was something in there that he could use to his advantage, after all she and the weakling spent a lot of time together and from what he grasped about their liaison was that it was about making each other happy and making sacrifices…  
Hmm.  
She and he had been 'dating' for years now and despite all his flaws she still seemed to cave in and give in to his requests, but lately she'd been acting indifferently towards him and certainly been showing more interest in himself.  
The Prince of Saiyan's felt a smirk form on his lips, an idea was forming. Had he not made sacrifices lately? Was no not a fine example of a male specimen…?  
Would she not try harder to meet his needs if he met a few of hers?  
Willing cooperation, beats forced cooperation, he mused, and he _did_ have to be more careful with his workouts… take a few more breaks.  
He could spare some time between his workouts to try this out. 

* * *

**Let me know what you think so far.**


End file.
